Residents in Gaza flooded into stores and markets to buy sugar, flour, candles, first-aid kits, batteries as well as other emergency supplies.

Panic has been rife following a series of widespread Israeli operations in Palestinian-controlled areas in the past few days, which have killed dozens of Palestinians.

Palestinian analyst Hani Al-Masri said Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon would use the Iraq war as an opportunity to impose his vision of solving the conflict with the Palestinians.

"It may include internal expulsion operations, a possible reoccupation of the Gaza strip and even exiling President Yasser Arafat out of the country," said Al-Masri.

Meanwhile, the Israeli army has closed borders with the West Bank and Gaza Strip to prevent Palestinians from entering Israel.

The ban, which took effect on Saturday and will last for an indefinite period, barred Palestinian men aged between 15 and 35 from leaving the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Palestinian officials described the Israeli security measures, especially prohibiting the free movement of the Palestinians as "a serious escalation."

Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat said the harsh measures taken by Israel lately were in line with its aggressive policy against the Palestinians. Erekat warned that Israel might "take more oppressive measures in light of the looming war on Iraq."

Similar measures were taken during the first Gulf War in 1991, when the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip lived in a state of siege for three months.

Al-Masri said the military action against Iraq "seems approaching and the Palestinians will have their share to pay in this strike."

"The war is forthcoming and it is certain that Israel will launch its aggression with the beginning of the war on Iraq," Al-Masri said. "Israel may use the situation to practice more humiliation, oppression and killing against our people."

Moeen Majdalawi, a 32-year-old Palestinian citizen believes Israel would take the opportunity to end the Palestinian Intifada (uprising) "while the whole world will be preoccupied with the war on Iraq."

Khawla Quweider, 30, said while looking at her baby in arm that "our main concern is to provide a lot of milk and medicine."

Another woman said her husband was shot in the leg by Israeli troops a year ago, and is no longer able to work. She had to borrow money to feed her five children.

PNA Minister of Food Supplies Abdel Aziz Shahim said the situation in Palestinian territories is very bad due to the siege and closure, and the Palestinian authority has found it difficult to provide the necessary needs of the people.

"The purchase average in the Gaza Strip is 25 percent, and the situation could get worse by the start of the war," Shahim said.

In contrast, some Palestinians seem indifferent to the current situation and the upcoming war on Iraq, believing that their living conditions will not change when the war is waged.

(China Daily March 20, 2003)